Jack Benny: "There are only five real people in Hollywood. Everybody else is Mel Blanc."
Originally, the sound of the Maxwell car on Jack Benny's radio show was a pre-recorded sound effect on a phonograph record. However, during a live broadcast, Blanc noticed that the record player was not turned on for the crucial moment when the effect was supposed to play. He quickly grabbed the microphone and improvised the sounds himself, to the utter delight of the studio audience. Benny made it part of the program from then on and gave Blanc much larger roles to play in the show.
The sound Bugs Bunny makes while munching a carrot is actually Blanc munching on a carrot. He tried using celery, raw potatoes, and a lot of other things, but only a carrot would make that carrot crunching sound. According to Noel Blanc, Mel's son, Mel was not in fact allergic to carrots as was previously thought by many. People who worked in the sound studios believed this because they would see Mel spitting out the carrot after taking a bite. Mel did this because he could not speak with the carrot in his mouth and that was the only reason he spat it out.
Originally, voice artists were not given screen credit on animated cartoons. After he was turned down for a raise by tight-fisted producer Leon Schlesinger, Blanc suggested they add his name as Vocal Characterizationist to the credits as a compromise and omitted the name of any other voice actor that worked on the cartoon. Not only did it give greater recognition to voice artists from then on, it helped to bring Blanc to the public eye and quickly brought him more work in radio.
On January 24, 1961, Blanc was in a near-fatal car accident while many of the shows that required his services, most importantly "The Flintstones," were still in production. He did the voices of his characters in both his home bed and his hospital bed, in a full body cast and with all his "Flintstones" co-stars and recording equipment crowded into the same room.
While in a coma after the accident, doctors unsuccessfully tried to get Mel to talk. Finally, a doctor, who was also a huge fan of his cartoon characters, asked Mel "Bugs? Bugs Bunny? Are you there?" In Bugs Bunny's voice, Mel responded "What's up, Doc?". After talking with several other characters, they eventually lead Mel out of his coma.